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How public-market filings work
Articles on the filings behind insider trades, Congress trades, fund holdings and federal contracts. Each states what the official form says, links the rule or the filing it comes from, and says what the filing does not show. RSS feed.
4 min readWhich insider purchases stood out in the week of Sep 28 to Oct 4, 2026?
Of 318 open-market insider purchases filed in the week of Sep 28 to Oct 4, 2026, ten stood out against their company's own record since 2006. Three of them, with their SEC filings.
4 min readWhat is a blind trust, and how does a qualified trust work?
The Ethics in Government Act creates two kinds of qualified trust, blind and diversified, run by an independent trustee. What the executive-branch rules say.
5 min readIs it legal for a CEO to sell shares before bad news?
A sale before bad news is illegal only if the seller was aware of material nonpublic information. What Rule 10b5-1 plans and cooling-off periods change.
4 min readWhat do the dollar ranges on a Congress trade report mean?
Members of Congress report each trade as one of ten value categories, from $1,001-$15,000 up to over $50,000,000, based on the gross price. How to read them.
4 min readAre a Congress member's spouse and child trades reported?
Yes: a member's periodic transaction report covers securities owned by the member, a spouse or dependent children above $1,000. What SP, DC and JT mean.
4 min readHow can you get free alerts for new SEC filings?
EDGAR search results can be turned into RSS feeds, including a Latest Filings feed filtered to insider forms 3, 4 and 5. How to set one up, and its limits.
4 min readWhat are executive orders and proclamations?
Executive orders and proclamations are presidential documents in the daily Federal Register. How they are numbered, why publication lags, where to search.
4 min readWhat is FARA, and where can you search its filings?
FARA, enacted in 1938, requires certain agents of foreign principals to register and report publicly. What it requires and where filings are searched.
4 min readWhat do modification numbers mean in a federal contract?
A federal contract record is a chain of actions. What a modification number, a reason for modification and a negative obligation mean on USAspending.
4 min readHow do you find a company's insider trades on EDGAR?
Use EDGAR company search, filter to ownership forms 3, 4 and 5, and open each filing. The steps, the other SEC tools, and the limits of the raw filings.
4 min readHow do you read the tables on a Form 4?
Table I covers shares, Table II covers options and other derivatives. What each column shows, and what direct and indirect ownership mean on the form.
4 min readWhat are SEC Forms 3, 4 and 5, and when are they due?
Form 3 is the first report of an insider's holdings, Form 4 reports each change, Form 5 is a year-end catch-up. Who files each one and the deadlines.
4 min read30 terms in public disclosure, in plain English
30 terms from insider, Congress, fund, contract and lobbying filings, each defined from the official source: Form 4, 13F, PTR, UEI, LD-2 and more.
4 min readHow do the House and Senate publish stock trade disclosures?
House reports are filed with the Clerk, on paper or electronically, and the STOCK Act requires both chambers to post them online. What we could confirm.
4 min readWhat are LD-1, LD-2 and LD-203 lobbying reports?
LD-1 registers a lobbyist, LD-2 reports lobbying activity each quarter, and LD-203 reports contributions twice a year. Deadlines and what each contains.
5 min readWhat are OGE Form 278e and OGE Form 278-T?
OGE Form 278e is the executive-branch public financial disclosure report, and Form 278-T reports securities transactions between reports. Who files and when.
4 min readWhat is the difference between Schedule 13D and 13G?
Both report a stake above 5 percent. Schedule 13D is for investors who may seek control, 13G for passive and institutional holders. Deadlines since 2023.
4 min readWhat is the six-month short-swing profit rule?
Section 16(b) lets a company recover profit an insider makes from a purchase and sale within six months. What the statute says and who can sue.
4 min readHow does USAspending identify who received a contract?
A USAspending recipient is a registered legal entity with a Unique Entity ID, sometimes an ultimate parent. Why a listed company may appear under another name.
4 min readWhat does a Form 13F leave out?
A 13F lists long positions in US-listed equities at quarter end. It leaves out shorts, most foreign shares, trade dates and prices, and small managers.
4 min readWhat is short interest, and where does FINRA publish it?
Short interest is the short positions in a security that broker-dealers report to FINRA. What Rule 4560 requires, what FINRA publishes, and what it cannot show.
4 min readHow long after quarter end do funds file a 13F?
Form 13F is due within 45 days after each quarter ends: mid-May, mid-August, mid-November and mid-February. The dates, amendments and what the lag means.
4 min readWho counts as an insider and has to file Form 4?
Directors, officers and owners of more than 10 percent of a company's registered stock must report their holdings and trades under Section 16. Who that covers.
4 min readWhich officials must file financial disclosure reports?
The Ethics in Government Act requires the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, senior officials, nominees and candidates to file public reports.
5 min readWhy are public disclosures always late?
Every disclosure has a legal deadline: two business days for insiders, 45 days for Congress trades and 13F funds, 20 days for lobbying. The lag chain.
4 min readCan members of Congress trade stocks? What the STOCK Act requires, and what it does not
The STOCK Act of 2012 requires members of Congress to report stock trades within 30 days of notice and 45 days of the trade. It confirms insider trading law applies to them. What it says, and where a 2026 bill stands.
4 min readHow to find the federal contracts a public company holds on USAspending
Federal contract awards are public on USAspending.gov, but they are filed under recipient names, not tickers. How recipients, parents, UEIs, award types and modifications work, and the mistakes that distort a company total.
3 min readWhere to find insider, Congress, contract and lobbying data for free: the official sources
Insider trades, Congress trades, fund holdings, federal contracts and lobbying reports all start as free public records. Where each lives, what it offers, its limits, and what a tracker such as OQRO adds.
4 min readHow to read a congressional periodic transaction report, column by column
A House periodic transaction report lists a member's stock trades in ten amount bands, with two dates and an owner code. What each column means, which trades are left out, and how long reports take to appear.
5 min readHow to read a Form 144: the notice filed before an insider sells restricted or control stock
A Form 144 announces a planned sale under SEC Rule 144. What each part shows, when it must be filed, the six-month and one-year holding periods, the volume limit, and how it differs from a Form 4.
4 min readWhat is insider cluster buying, and what does the evidence show?
Cluster buying means several insiders of one company buying its stock in a short span. What the term does and does not mean, what one academic study found, what OQRO's own test found, and counts from one quarter of filings.
4 min readIs insider trading legal? Insiders buying their own stock versus trading on secret information
Corporate insiders may legally buy and sell their company's stock if they report it. Trading while aware of material nonpublic information is illegal. What the SEC rules say, and what a Form 4 can and cannot show.
4 min readWhat a lobbying disclosure report (LD-2) contains, and what it leaves out
Lobbyists file quarterly LD-2 reports under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. The fields, the rounding of amounts, the registration thresholds and penalties, and the rule that stops in-house and outside spending counting twice.
3 min readOQRO vs OpenInsider: what each lists
A dated, factual comparison of OQRO and OpenInsider, taken from OpenInsider's own home page: a Form 4 screener versus insider trades next to Congress, funds and contracts.
3 min readOQRO vs Quiver Quantitative: what each lists, and what each costs
A dated, factual comparison of OQRO and Quiver Quantitative, two services that track Congress trades, insider trades and fund filings, taken from each one's own public pages.
3 min readOQRO vs Unusual Whales: what each lists, and what each costs
A dated, factual comparison of OQRO and Unusual Whales, taken from each one's own public pages: filed disclosures versus options flow, what each lists and what each costs.
3 min readOQRO vs WhaleWisdom: what each lists, and what each costs
A dated, factual comparison of OQRO and WhaleWisdom, taken from WhaleWisdom's own pricing page: a 13F specialist versus fund holdings next to insider trades, Congress trades and contracts.
4 min readSEC Form 4 transaction codes: what P, S, A, M, F, G and the other letters mean
Every Form 4 transaction is labelled with a one-letter code. The full list from the SEC's instructions, which codes are real market purchases and sales, and how often each kind of record appears in OQRO's database.
4 min readWhat is OQRO? Insider trades, Congress trades, fund moves and federal contracts in plain words
OQRO is a subscription site that turns US public disclosures into one plain line each, with a link to the official filing. What it covers, where the data comes from, how fresh it is and what it costs.
4 min readWhen is a Form 4 late? The two-business-day deadline and what a late filing looks like
Insiders must file a Form 4 before the end of the second business day after a trade. How EDGAR counts the day, the exceptions for trading plans, how a late filing shows, and what OQRO's records show for one quarter.
4 min readWhy a Congress trade disclosure can arrive weeks after the trade, and what the amount bands mean
The STOCK Act gives members of Congress 30 days from notice and at most 45 days from the trade to report. What that means in practice, what the dollar bands are, and a real report worked through.
4 min readContract ceiling versus obligated amount: how to read a federal award
A federal contract can show a ceiling of billions and an obligation of zero. What each USAspending figure means, why a ceiling is not revenue, and a real contract worked through.
5 min readHow to read an SEC Form 4 in five minutes
A Form 4 is the filing an insider sends the SEC after trading their company's stock. Four passes through the form, with a real filing worked through line by line.
5 min readOQRO and other public-disclosure trackers: what each one covers
A dated, factual comparison of OQRO with SEC EDGAR, Quiver Quantitative, Unusual Whales, OpenInsider and WhaleWisdom, taken from each product's own public pages, with what OQRO does not do.
4 min readRule 10b5-1 plans: what they are and what an insider sale does and does not tell you
How a pre-arranged trading plan works, what the SEC's 2022 rules changed, how to see a plan on a Form 4, and what the research says about planned and unplanned insider trades.
4 min readWhat a Form 13F does and does not tell you
A 13F lists the US-listed shares an investment manager held at the end of a quarter. What the SEC says it covers, what it leaves out, and a real filing read row by row.
These articles explain public filings and describe other products from their own published pages. They are not legal or investment advice.